Deadly Choices
by Jori Lynn
Summary: A killer rages through Tulsa, leaving no one safe.  A victim escapes death thanks the Curtis brothers, while Socs and greasers fight a war of their own. Can they reach an agreement before it's too late? Everyone has decisions to make- some deadly.
1. Chapter 1

The stranger that is following me is wearing all black. It's hard to tell in the dark night, but I'm able to detect a shadowy figure lurking a few feet away. My nervous eyes dart from side to side, trying to find an escape. How long have he been following me? His steps echo from behind me and I quicken my pace.

With each step I try to distance myself from the dangerous stalker. Why didn't I ask someone for a ride home? I knew that it would be dark walking home from work. The city wasn't a safe place at night for a teenage girl who's alone. Actually, it isn't really a safe place for anyone alone at night.

I know that he's close. My heartbeat seems to pound in my head as I run. A crack in the sidewalk sends me flying to the ground, and I land on the concrete, scraping my hands. I begin to get up, but realize that he is standing right over me. Paralyzed in shock, all I can do is stare. No one used to mess with me until I became a greaser. My shield was removed the moment I left the West Side Socs. He pins me to the ground and I'm glued to the sidewalk.

He doesn't look much older than me, probably only seventeen. The man seems unlike a greaser or Soc, just different. Icy blue eyes stand out even though the only light comes from the dimly lit street lights.

"What do you want from me?" I ask, trying to hold back the hysteria in my voice. "Here's my ring. All the money I have." I manage to throw my valuables to his feet. It hurt to throw away the ring. My grandmother's wedding ring was worth a small fortune and even more in sentimental value. I figured I was worth more than a ring. But it still hurt.

"No, I don't want that."

My heart seems to skip a beat, and my breathing is not normal.

"Please, don't kill me." I fight back the tears that threaten to trickle down my face. The boy almost seems to smile.

"I'm not going to kill you." I hear a sick, twisted laugh. "Maybe."He presses he lips to my neck. I kick and wave my arms around trying to fight him to no avail. This wouldn't of happen if I was still a soc. Why didn't I learn to fight? Why didn't I bring a knife? Why? Something sends a searing pain though my arm. I recognize the agonizing scream as mine. I can't speak; only moan unintelligible things until blackness tugs at the corners of my vision. This is the end. I'm going to die right now. I just hope it will be quick.

* * *

><p>"Soda, Darry's gonna kill me if I stay out any later." Ponyboy says. He silently hopes that Darry will go easy on him because he's with Sodapop. But there still is school tomorrow.<p>

"Yeah, you're probably right. And he'll kill me for letting you stay out this late. But that doesn't mean _I'm_ done for the night." Sodapop says, flashing his movie star smile. It feels good to be traveling with the gang, there's a certain sense of security, Pony thinks. The only one missing is Dally, but that isn't too uncommon.

Then, a bloodcurdling scream breaks through the silent night. It echoes in everyone's ears.

"What the hell was that?" says Two-Bit. He flicks out his switchblade, ready for an inevitable fight. He knows the scream was close, but it scares him in a weird way. It was a high pitched scream of a girl.

"Be careful Pony. You too Johnny." Soda warns. "I think it came from right over here." The boys break out into a run when they see them. A young girl is strewn across the cement sidewalk, crimson blood stained across her body, as a man cloaked all in black slashes her with a knife. Without thinking, Sodapop lunges at the man, Two-Bit attacking with his blade. The man is quicker, though. He jumps and races away like he was shot from canon. He jumps in a car, not a mustang or a jalopy, and speeds away with a screech.

"Dirty piece of Soc shit!" Steve swears, left in shock from the turn of events. Ponyboy finds his mind is racing and find he can't think straight. He's seen fights and this just wasn't normal. This was one man, if you could call him that, attacking a defenseless woman randomly. Then running away like a coward. Pony kneels next to girl in utter horror. He can't see all the wounds in the poor light, but he can tell it's bad. Real bad.

"What do we do?" He asks, his voice breaking.

"Let's bring her to my place. Darry will know." Soda picks up the girl, surprised at how light she is. Soda thinks of Sandy, and what he'd do to a monster that did anything to her. The group sprints back as fast as they can to the familiar Curtis house.

"Darry, some Soc just jumped this girl. We couldn't just leave her there to die." Pony watches the wave of shock spread through Darry, but he keeps his cool.

"Oh, God." Darry says under his breath, looking at what was done to the girl. "Bring her inside. Go find bandages Pony, get some wet towels Two-Bit." Soda lays the girl down and Darry gets to work. He steadily cleans all the cuts and scratches placing the strips of stitches across the deep knife wound. He wraps bandages around her bleeding hands while the boys sit there bewildered. They've all seen this, but no one has tried to kill a girl, especially one this young before. This was a new low, even for a dirty Soc.

* * *

><p>Pain was everywhere, engulfing me like a strong gust of wind. I think I may have moaned, but I don't remember. But I do remember someone helping me. Strong hands took mine as they gently wrapped bandages around my wet hands. Why were my hands wet? Then I remember the attack in a burst of clarity. It seems all too real. My hands were wet with blood. I blink my eyes open despite the pain and see a man leaning over me.<p>

I instinctively recoil , hoping my nightmare would soon come to an end.

"It's okay." He soothed. "We're helping you." I trust his words and his kind eyes and relax my tense body. I'm conscious, but barely coherent.

"Thanks." I manage to mumble. My world turns black again, though the last thing I see is _his _face.

_AN: Thanks for reading! This is my first Outsiders fanfic, so I hope it's okay. I've been dying to write this forever and am happy to finally let it all escape. Please, please review. Oh, by the way, I rated this T because I'm 13 and I wrote it, so I feel it would be appropriate for someone my age to read. It would mean so much to me to get any feedback. I promise you the next chapter will get better, so bear with me._

_P.S.: I'm now a beta reader (yay!) and would love to help with your story! Please contact me. Thanks!_


	2. Chapter 2

The subconscious mind has a funny way of telling you things. And hurting you.

_Her skin was pale and she had the same wavy, golden hair as me. She was slight with tiny fairy like features. I probably just imagined the way she looked, though. I was five years old and through big brown eyes I watched her disappear like she was turning into dust._

_In the dream my dad got angry a lot. He'd yell at me and tell me it was my fault she left us. I still got everything I wanted, though, we still appeared picture perfect like any other of the Socs. But I became the poor little girl whose mom died. They didn't know the whole story._

_My weird dream takes me to high school, right when my dad started to go crazy. Cans of bear were always in the fridge, but still he kept up the façade of perfection. The dream turns red and hazy and I hear him scream and swear at me to be perfect._

_Then the crazy old man dies. It was a shock to everyone except me, but mostly they were surprised because they found out that he had outstanding debts to pay. No money was left for his 'poor, misguided daughter'. No one was ever close to me, so there was no one I could turn to. I watch myself get thrown into the world of the greasers where I learn to live and work. But I'm still on the outside. Never a Soc, never a greaser._

I must have banged my head pretty hard last night after all the strange dreams I had. My head and the rest of my body throbs, worse than yesterday if that were possible, when I see that I'm curled up on a corner of a couch within a foot of a greaser. Something about him looks really familiar, like I've seen him before. He's watching T.V. and doesn't notice me. That's good. I've never really enjoy talking people, though I can. I've always been able to detect what people want to hear, so overall I get on their good side.

The greaser gets up during the commercial probably to get a new can of beer after he chugged down his last one. I can get out now. I want to stay and thank the greaser that saved me, hopefully I have some money to give them for all they did. There is another reason I want to get out. I don't know why, but a I feel like a caged animal whenever I'm in someone else's house. Maybe it's because I don't like to be a burden. Or it could be that I just don't like to be very social.

I take this opportunity to try to quietly get out of the house. I get up out of the couch but then I feel a sharp, cutting pain in my leg. I tumble onto the floor in a heap, realizing I can barely walk on my leg.

Then the greaser walks back in with a beer can in his hand. "Hey, what's the hurry? I don't bite. Unless you want me to." He grins and raises his eyebrows impishly. I can tell he's definitely a joker so I try to smile back. Right after I playfully toss a throw pillow at his head.

"Watch where you throw pillows, you almost ruined a master piece." He says in mock hurt. "Looks like your feeling better than last night." The greaser offers me a hand and assists me back onto the couch.

"Thanks."

"So what's your name?" I always hated telling my name. It sounded like a ten-cent romance novel name. Krystal Waters. What were my parents thinking?

"Kris. How 'bout you?" I usually didn't talk so casually, but I catch on to the slang people use very quickly.

"Two-Bit." That's a funny nick-name. For once everything is silent, but that just makes me feel even more uncomfortable. I have this nasty habit of smiling and babbling when I'm nervous.

"Can I ask you something?" I say.

"You just did. Fire away."

"What happened last night? And why didn't you just leave me there?" I inwardly cringe. I'm babbling again.

"We didn't leave you 'cause you're just too pretty." He says jokingly. Then his demeanor turns serious. "And nothing you want to remember happened last night."

Now I feel stuck and awkward again. "This your place?"

"Naw. I just crash on the couch, except on the rare occasion that someone steals my spot. Like you." He flashes a smile. "Darry, do you remember him? He was the big guy with the muscles. Well he lets me hang here. His two kid brothers live here, too. The whole gang stays here whenever they want to, though."

Darry has to be the one I saw last. He was the one with the kind eyes. I wish I could stay to thank, but I want to get to my dingy apartment that I consider home. I'll just drop some money by later as a thank you gift.

"That's awful nice of him, letting everyone stay here. And fixing me up and letting me stay here for the night. Gosh, I would be dead if it wasn't for you guys. Thank-you. I really mean it."

"It's not you fault some dirty Soc is going around beating up girls. Heck, it's none of our faults that Socs have the easy life so they hurt people for fun." His voice takes on a cutting tone and hatred almost radiates from him. I bite my tongue. I have mixed feelings on the never-ending greaser vs. Soc situation. I _was _ a Soc. But I never really considered myself a part of them. Sure , I had the money, but it wasn't me. I was only good at pretending. It seems that sometimes I spend my whole life pretending.

"Yeah, you're right." I effortlessly lie. I didn't agree with him at all, not that I would say that.

It turns out that Two-Bit is great company when you're bored and can't go anywhere. He just chatters on and on, so I just sit back and listen. It's almost relaxing. _Almost_.

"Hey, Two-Bit."

"Yup."

"I'm going to try walking on my sore leg. Could you help me up?" I hold on to Two-Bit's arm and shakily I stand. I can barely put pressure on my right leg, but my left seems fine. It feel like my chest is about to cave in, though. I sigh in relief. At least I can walk. If I wasn't able to walk, I couldn't work at the Stop 'n Shop, and then I'd be forced to live on the streets. I wasn't about to let that happen. Today was Saturday, so I had the day off at least.

"Thanks again. And tell Darry and the others that I owe them. Here's my number- call if you need anything." I write my number down on the back of a receipt and hand it to him.

"Remember 'ole Two-Bit if you're feeling lonely tonight." He says and winks. I just laugh.

"Bye, Two-Bit." I'm able to limp back to my apartment with not much trouble, but going up the stairs is hard. I cling to the hand rail and after lots of effort, I make it. The door to my apartment is unlocked like always, so I walk right in. It's barely two-rooms with a closet-sized bedroom and a kitchen-living room area when you walk in. There's a doll-house sized bathroom right off my bedroom, but it feels like a cave.

"Home, sweet home." I mumble, flinging myself onto my bed. I kick off my shoes, not caring where they land, and shove my head into my pillow. _Don't cry_, I tell myself. It's easy to fall into self pity when you're alone. I promised myself I would never wallow again because it's just too hard to stop.

I don't have parents or friends. My only family is my good-for-nothing uncle who got all my lousy dad's money. But I have a job, a 'home', and my life. Well, just barely, but I still have my life. I _will_ make something of myself. I just don't know what yet.

**AN: Thanks to my reviewers! There wouldn't be a chapter 2 without you. The plot is going to pick up pretty soon, but I wanted you to get to know K****ris a little more first. I hope Two-Bit was in character (he was so fun to write!). I thought he would be kind of funny guy, flirty personality. Please review, and thanks!**


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